My review was written in November 1992 after watching the movie on Academy video cassette.
Earnest with a capital E, "Chains of Gold" is a failed attempt to deal with the ongoing drug/crime wave entrapping today's youth. This 1989 MCEG production was shown on Showtime last year and is now a Christmas video release.
Opening title card indicates the film was based on actual events, but the screenplay by star John Travolta and three other writers is corny melodrama.
Travolta portrays a do-gooder social worker in Miami with major guilt over the death of his son when he was too drunk to help. He's now taken under his wing a surrogate son, Joey Lawrence, who's deeply involved in local drug dealing.
When Lawrence disappears, Travolta becomes obsessed with finding the boy and saving him. Losing his job after a fight with a superior, Travolta decides to infiltrate the drug ring, led by evil Benjamin Bratt. To this end, he enlists the aid of an old flame, Marilu Henner, who's now working as Bratt's corrupt lawyer.
The film becomes utterly unconvincing when Bratt admits Travolta to his inner circle while having his henchman closely monitor the outsider. Of course Travolta bulls his way through to a violent, offing-the-baddies conclusion, but it plays as false.
Keeping his 1970s superstar charisma and physical abilities under wraps, Travolta is tiresome in this stolid, goody two-shoes role. Pairing with Henner strikes no sparks either. Film's best performance comes from Bratt, as the brash. 21-year-old fabulously wealthy drug kingpin.
Rod Holcomb's direction varies from overly low-key in the middle reels to egregiously hokey melodrama for the finale.
